Chapter 10 - THE FINAL BETRAYAL
Vincent stared at the white papers in my hand.
His hands trembled violently.
He didn't reach out to take them.
Instead, a dark, chilling smile spread across his face—the smile of a man who had nothing left to lose.
“You think papers stop what’s coming, Claire?” he murmured softly.
Before I could react, the shadows behind the boathouse door shifted.
A figure stepped out from the darkness.
Holding a silenced pistol.
Vanessa Reed.
Her face was bruised, her hair unkempt, her eyes wild with murderous obsession.
“If I can’t have him, neither can you,” Vanessa shrieked, raising the gun directly toward my chest.
I froze.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
I looked at Vincent—expecting him to freeze, to block her, to save me.
Instead, Vincent moved with lightning speed.
He didn't lunge at Vanessa.
He lunged at me.
He tackled me hard to the wooden floorboards just as a bullet whistled through the air, burying itself into the wall behind us.
Bang!
A second shot echoed through the boathouse.
Vanessa screamed in agony.
From the doorway, Marcus Vance and a team of federal marshals rushed in, their rifles raised.
Marcus fired his sidearm, striking Vanessa in the shoulder and sending her collapsing onto the gravel.
I lay pinned beneath Vincent on the dusty floorboards, gasping for air.
He hovered over me, his gray eyes wide with sheer terror.
“Are you hit?” he panted, his hands frantically checking my arms and shoulders.
“No,” I whispered, staring up at him in utter bewilderment.
“Why... why did you push me?”
“Because she was aiming for your heart,” Vincent choked out, unshed tears spilling over his lashes.
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“I couldn't lose you again, Claire.”
“Even if you hate me... I couldn't let her kill you.”
